5mo - how often do they feed? cues?

[NumptyMum]

I'm back to feeling a bit baffled by breastfeeding. DD is my 2nd; with DS I remember I had to start feeding him 3-hourly at around this age as he got so distracted by the joys of new discoveries/life that he started feeding mainly at night. With DD I'm finding it really hard to determine her cues: sometimes I'll latch her on thinking she must be desperate, only to find she takes a few mouthfuls then turns to smile at me. Very cute, but frustrating when she's pinging my nipple out of her mouth to do it, turning back for more, doing it again, turning back for more etc. Makes my sore nipples (long story) even more sore [grumpy mum emoticon].

So - is there any 'average' time between feeds for a 5mo, and what do you read as cues for feeding with your baby at this age?

If DD gets a bit grouchy around 3 hours after a feed, I try to feed her. If she gets very grouchy at any time three-quarters of an hour onwards after a feed, I see if she's hungry!

Not the answer you were looking for I'd say, but I'm interested to see the responses. DD is also ridiculously cute with the smiling up at me while not hungry. She also does a little happy dance (well waves arms & legs) and launches towards my boob with her mouth wide open... but this is also no guarantee that she's hungry. It's almost like it's her way of showing her appreciation

DD2 is still mostly on a 2 hour cycle at 5 months old. Mind you I have to confess, with 2 older siblings and 3 school runs a day it's not so much a case of reading feeding cues as it is just feeding her whenever I have a spare moment!!

With the nipple pinging etc I would just take her off straight away as she's clearly not that interested.

I'm same as you in that if it's a while after last feed I'll offer, but today that meant she'd had a feed around 10am, then didn't really appear to be hungry properly until much later in the afternoon. I put her on after her sleep at 1.30pm and that was one of the times she was pulling off and smiling at me! Perhaps it was because she needed a little more time to be social with me before feeding... but we had to go out at 2.30 (when she had probably decided she WOULD like a feed) and because I was meeting a friend, again she just didn't stay on my breast. Not until nearer 3.45. So from 10am to around 3.45pm with 2 lots of faffing-about feeds between - which I'd have rather not had. Does 5 hours sound normal? or even 4 hours?

I suspect she's going to be on catch-up tonight. Sigh.

X-posts, thanks Mrs Gravy for your response - I've generally taken her off after 2 or 3 times nipple-pinging... I was trying the 'spare moment' feeding today (as you'll see above) but it doesn't always work. Shame I can't explain to her that she'll just have to wait for it if she doesn't take it now!

Any other input? Last night she fed at around 6, 7.30, 9, 11.30, 3 (woken due to huge fart!), 5 (woke due to burp I think) and then was still awake after 5am feed finished at around 6am... at which point I handed her to DS as I was so tired.

However she's not yet had a decent feed today. I tried feeding her after I got her dressed, around 9am but she just kept coming off; then we had toddler group (I help run so can't not go) and she had a bit of a feed but then I had to deal with DS so that got cut short. Afterwards she fell asleep. So we're in same problem pattern again, though now we're home I'm hoping she'll wake, be hungry and NOT distracted and have a really good feed.

She's just woken crying so will go feed her and pop back here later!

Dc3 is 20w and feeds 8 or 10 times in 24 hours but goes to bed at 7 and then feeds at 2am and 5am or () 4am and 7am. So she feeds every 2 hours frm 7am til mid afternoon then every hour til 7pm. This is how she is and I've tried spacing it out more but she gets hungry. DC1 and 2 both fed every 3 or 4 hours in the day and were about the same as dc3 at night.

anyone else? I guess I might drop doing feed on demand as I can't figure out when the demands are...

I could never work out DS's cues at this age. I offered every time he woke, every time he went to sleep (I fed to sleep) and any time he seemed grumpy. He had 3 or 4 naps a day. He fed a couple of times in the night too.

I always prioritise sleep over feeding as my presonal view is that they are usually more grumpy due to tiredness than hunger. And if they feed after a nap they generally feed better and last longer. My dd3 goes 3-4 hrly in the day and she is 5 mths old.

Re the night feeds- have you ever considered that the frequent feeding may be causing the excess wind? It did to my dd and she used to wake more frequently when she was fed more because her belly was working overtime.

I think the sooner they learn that nights are for sleeping and not feeding, all the better and they can start learning this as early as 4-5 months.

Am going through the same with DS. Am sure last week he was screaming for milk within a couple of hours but last couple of days he seems to go for hours without feeds, and if I try to latch him on, I just get clawed etc. He seems to be feeding for shorter periods too, but as he is still having enough wet nappies, I guess he is just more efficient at feeding, and (whisper) maybe the cluster feeding days are over?? I definitely cannot see any cues as to when he is hungry, he seems to just want more attention than milk at the moment...
Sleeping is still on routine and I can tell when he is tired, and usually 4 hourly in the day.